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A new collaborative agreement
between Momentive Specialty
Chemicals Inc. (MSC), Columbus,
Ohio, and the Fraunhofer Project
Center for Composites Research
at Western University, London,
Ontario, brings a total solutions
approach to high-volume,
lightweight composites for the
North American automotive
market. The partnership makes
new processes such as HP-RTM or
D-SMC lines much more
accessible as both the state-ofthe-art systems and equipment
will be available. MSC will use the
Fraunhofer Project Center's facility
and equipment for its own
independent research and product
development with customers.
www.momentive.com,
www.fraunhofer.de/en.
Research from the Niels Bohr
Institute at the University of
Copenhagen, Denmark, shows
that cement made with waste ash
from sugar production is stronger
than ordinary cement—the ash
helps to bind water in the cement
so that it is stronger, can withstand
higher pressure, and crumbles
less. The process also saves
energy and reduces pollution.
www.nbi.ku.dk/english.
The cement powder is packaged
in aluminum foil and placed in a
sample holder. The sample
holder is sealed tight with indium
wire and 22 screws.
METALS POLYMERS CERAMICS
Self-healing polymer repairs itself
Scientists from CIDETEC Centre for Electrochemical
Technologies, San Sebastian, Spain, report the first selfhealing polymer that spontaneously and independently repairs itself without any intervention. The
new material could be used to improve the security and lifetime of plastic parts in everyday products such as electrical components, cars, and even
houses. Researchers dubbed the material a "Terminator" polymer in tribute to the shape-shifting, molten
T-100 terminator robot from the Terminator 2 film.
Scientists prepared the self-healing thermoset elastomers
A cylindrical sample of
from common polymeric starting materials using a simple and
the elastomer mends
inexpensive approach. The polymer behaves as a Velcro-like
itself after being cut in
sealant or adhesive, displaying an impressive 97% healing effitwo by a razor blade
ciency in just two hours. After cutting the material into two sepand can be manually
stretched without
arate pieces with a razor blade and allowing it to self-heal, the
rupture.
material is unbreakable when stretched manually. "The fact that
poly(urea-urethane)s with similar chemical composition and mechanical properties are already used in a wide range of commercial products makes this system very attractive for a
fast and easy implementation in real industrial applications," notes the study author.
www.cidetec.es/en.
New sensor improves lifespan of high-temperature engines
A temperature sensor developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK, could
improve the efficiency, control, and safety of high-temperature engines. The new sensor, or
thermocouple, reduces drift by 80% at temperatures of 1200°C, and by 90% at 1300°C, potentially doubling the lifespan of engine
components. The thermocouple withstands
oxidization and minimizes any contamination
to the wires from the metallic sheath. It is made
of an outer wall of a conventional oxidizationresistant nickel alloy that can withstand high
temperatures, and an inner wall of a different,
impurity-free nickel alloy which prevents conThe phase-change memory arrays.
tamination while reducing drift.
Courtesy of SIMIT/Xilin Zhou.
"Nickel is an ideal material for these appliA new, environmentally-friendly electronic
cations as it is a good compromise between
alloy consisting of 50 aluminum atoms bound
cost and performance, but there is a gap in the
to 50 atoms of antimony may be promising
market for applications above 1000°," says
for building next-generation "phase-change"
Michele Scervini, a postdoctoral researcher.
memory devices, which may be the dataResults from tests on a prototype device
storage technology of the future, according to
showed a significant reduction in drift at tema study by researchers at the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Techperatures of 1200° and 1300°, meaning that a
nology at the Chinese Academy of
double-walled thermocouple can be used at
Sciences. They studied the material's phasetemperatures well above the current limitation
changing properties and found that it is more
of 1000°. For more information: Michele
thermally stable than the Ge-Sb-Te comScervini, +44 (0)1223 3 31950, www.cam.ac.uk.
pound. Al50Sb50, in particular, has three dis-
Magnesium to
lightweight auto parts
A University of Colorado Boulder professor was awarded a three-year, $3.6 million
6
ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES • NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2013
tinct levels of resistance—and thus the ability
to store three bits of data in a single memory
cell, instead of just two, suggesting that it can
be used for multilevel data storage.
http://english.sim.cas.cn.